Excerpt from Gaddings With a Primitive People: Being a Series of Sketches of Tyrolese Life and Customs<br><br>Let the reader remember throughout this volume, that it is not intolerance or a spirit of antagonism, based on pre judice, that leads me to speak as I do of the disastrous results of the Roman Catholic rule in Tyrol. Nor is it in mere caviling at the ordinances of a creed, when, moved by the sight of an intelligent race chained down by an over bearing and intolerant Church, I perhaps lose sight of the fact that I am myself but an intruder who, to begin with, is bound to respect the ordinances of the people among whom he has chosen to reside. But it is just my long residence that urges me to forget that circumstance; for not only have I been taught to respect the people for their upright and manly qualities of character, but my sympathy has been enlisted by their unhappy thralldom in the ever - dark dungeon of ignorance. Only a very intimate acquaintance with them will show one to what an extent the two chief blemishes upon the national character - bigotry, and laxity of morals - must be ascribed to the policy pursued by the Roman Curia in this her chief stronghold.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.